Cooking4Fun
Senior Cook
Is it safe to say that most pizza places grease their pans with grease that is liquid at room temperature?
Pizza Grease
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WhateverYouWant
Sous Chef
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Huh?
I think what Scott is trying to say is that most pizza places don't use 'Pans'. Pizzas are put into the ovens without anything under them other than the hot shelves already in there.
They are usually slid in and out with a pizza peel.
Traditionally a long handled flat paddle-like thing-a-me.
They are usually slid in and out with a pizza peel.
Traditionally a long handled flat paddle-like thing-a-me.
Cooking Goddess
Chef Extraordinaire
C4F, are you talking about deep dish pizza? I saved a recipe that claims to be like Pizzeria Uno's. Rather than oil the pan, the dough is oiled before rising. That probably gives the dough just enough slick to make it brown nicely in the pan. You can find the recipe here: Pizzeria Uno Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Cooking4Fun
Senior Cook
Oh I see. Well we use greased pans, and when the bottom is cooked enough we deck it onto the stones.
GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
Dragnlaw, I think they also use cornmeal or something similar, to prevent the crust from sticking to the peel when they put the pizza into the oven.
Cooking4Fun
Senior Cook
Looks cool. But no, we're in NY state and our pizza is thinner.
Cooking4Fun
Senior Cook
As far as I know in my area the pizzas are all on pans and the peel never touches raw dough. In fact the bottoms would burn if it had direct contact with the oven the whole time.
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GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
If they use pans, it's still unlikely they would grease them. Putting fat on the bottom would cause them to burn pretty quickly. And the metal gets quite hot very fast. It's there to support the pizza, not protect it from heat.
The pizza places I'm familiar with don't use pans and they have pretty hot ovens. The one in my neighborhood is owned by former New Yorker and he uses a peel, as does the owner of a bakery with a brick oven. It's a common way to bake pizza and it's doesn't burn unless it's left in the oven too long.
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Kathleen
Cupcake
My favorite pizza places do not grease pans. We also do not grease pans.
Disclaimer: Not a professional pizza baker.
Disclaimer: Not a professional pizza baker.
Cooking4Fun
Senior Cook
Maybe they just grease them to slide the pizza to the oven when the top is cooked? I think without grease it wouldn't budge. We've had sheet pizzas not slide out into oven with too little grease in pan.
Chief Longwind Of The North
Certified/Certifiable
My wife loves the buttery crust in Pizza Hut thick crust pizza. I've watched them make it. The use a pan foe all of their pizzas. They also add a little oil to giver the crust bottom, and edges a crispy-fried texture, similar to fry bread.
Whether a pan, and oil, or butter-flavored oil is used, depends on the pizza place.
The best ever pizza was spread into iron frying pan, greased with clarified butter, and placed in the Webber Kettle, over super hot lump charcoal. It came perfect, with that slightly smoky, almost charred flavor you get from a brick oven pizza.
Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
Whether a pan, and oil, or butter-flavored oil is used, depends on the pizza place.
The best ever pizza was spread into iron frying pan, greased with clarified butter, and placed in the Webber Kettle, over super hot lump charcoal. It came perfect, with that slightly smoky, almost charred flavor you get from a brick oven pizza.
Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
Aunt Bea
Master Chef
If a pizzaria uses pans I would think that the remains of the 1,000s of pizzas that came first would be sufficient to season the pans and prevent sticking. IMO the use of grease would make stretching and forming the crust more difficult.
The only time I use grease is a schmear of soft butter on the bottom of a slice when I reheat it low and slow on the stovetop in a covered cast iron skillet. The butter gives the toasted crust a rich crunchy mouth feel that IMO is better than the original.
The only time I use grease is a schmear of soft butter on the bottom of a slice when I reheat it low and slow on the stovetop in a covered cast iron skillet. The butter gives the toasted crust a rich crunchy mouth feel that IMO is better than the original.
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Yeah, I thought of that after I posted. I actually use cornmeal for my breads that I cook directly on my stones.
As said by GG, use the 'traditional' cornmeal.
Hearth cooked/baked pizza's are done in an oven that are much, much hotter than home ovens. They are not in there as long as ours usually are.
roadfix
Chef Extraordinaire
Perhaps the metal pan is too slippery when attempting to retrieve using the peel. That why you keep dropping them. Maybe they have peels specially designed for pans.
Cooking4Fun
Senior Cook
We don't use the peel on the pans. We mostly cook on a flat pan without raised edge and when it is solid enough we yank it out onto the stones for about 30 seconds until the bottoms are cooked. Then we use the peel to transfer to box or different metal pan before cutting.
Cooking4Fun
Senior Cook
Our ovens only reach 500 degrees (or at least that is our setting) unlike the hotter ones that reach 700 or higher. Sometimes slightly cooler is needed for our everything pizza that needs more time to cool.
Chief Longwind Of The North
Certified/Certifiable
Oil serves two functions on pizza pans. First,I transfers heat better from the pan to the dough, 2nd, it gives more crunch to the outer pizza surface. If you are using ghee, or olive oil, it also adds flavor to the crust.
So, whether you use oil or not is determined by the texture you want, and the flavor you warn. I won't go into my favorite, as everyone's idea of the perfect pizza is subjective.
If it were me, working in the place you are working in, I would make a few, simple Margareta pizzas, and bake one on the pizza stone, and one in a pan with 3 tbs. of olive oil, and even a third one, with the pan heavily buttered.
See which one you like best. You might even give away a free slice to several customers to determine which is the most popular.
Also, take on 8 inch supreme pizza, fold it in half, and crimp the edge, like a calzone. Brush with milk, and bake until golden brown. Serve that to the owner and see if he doesn't want to include it in his menu.
Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
So, whether you use oil or not is determined by the texture you want, and the flavor you warn. I won't go into my favorite, as everyone's idea of the perfect pizza is subjective.
If it were me, working in the place you are working in, I would make a few, simple Margareta pizzas, and bake one on the pizza stone, and one in a pan with 3 tbs. of olive oil, and even a third one, with the pan heavily buttered.
See which one you like best. You might even give away a free slice to several customers to determine which is the most popular.
Also, take on 8 inch supreme pizza, fold it in half, and crimp the edge, like a calzone. Brush with milk, and bake until golden brown. Serve that to the owner and see if he doesn't want to include it in his menu.
Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
Cooking4Fun
Senior Cook
I don't believe he wants to slow production down enough to add extra steps. He has only 2 people on pizza unit at a time, and often times I need to help the drivers. We can unload 12 larges, 4 sheets, smalls and personals, calzones, quesadillas, and other ******** each hour or so if it's busy. The dough really needs to be fully stretched and sauced and cheesed before we get started.
